I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and 2011 is off to a great start. As for me, I've been buying myself some presents now that Christmas is over with, how about you? I know, now is the time that a lot of people are worried about the credit card bills from all those Christmas presents bought and they stay inside and don't go shopping. However, now is one of the perfect times to go out and buy yourself some stuff. The deals are wonderful. I'm one of those individuals that rarely pays full price for clothes and shoes (running clothes/shoes are the exception). There are a couple times a year when stores heavily discount clothes and that's when I go shopping. Right after Christmas happens to be one of those times. So if you received some money or some gift cards, you might want to brave the crowds.
Here's what I've been up to the last couple of days.
Friday I went to a local mall to see Harry Potter at the theater with a friend. While there I decided to check out some of the stores. That's always a bad idea. lol! I ended up getting a pair of pants at The Limited for $20. That's the price I normally pay for their pants, if you hit the sales it can happen. The pants normally retail for $60. All of my work pants are either from Express, The Limited, or Ann Taylor. They last for years, and I only buy them on sale when I can get them for $20 or less. In fact, most of my jeans are from those three stores and Banana Republic, and again, I only pay $20 or less.
I'm also ecstatic that I found a pair of boots that actually fit me! I have skinny legs and knee-high boots are always way too big and don't look right. I saw the boots I bought from the window and knew I had to try them on. The are flat, come almost to my knee, and are black leather. I love them! I should probably get a picture of me wearing them and show them off. The bast part? The boots retail for $89.95 and I bought them for $29.95 before tax. Can't beat that! I have a rule when it comes to shoes, other than running shoes that is. I refuse to pay more than $60 for a pair of shoes. If I like them and they cost more, I look for sales and coupons until the price drops enough for me to get them. Sometimes I end up missing out on the shoes, other times I pay way less than $60. (I looked for a picture of the boots I bought online but couldn't find them! Bastards.)
Of course, after finally finding a pair of boots I had to buy some leggings and a sweater dress (clearance at Kohl's and had $10 Kohl's cash that my MIL gave me).
As for today, today I got some good deals. Sports Authority had some of the Nike Pro Cold Gear clothes on sale for $29.95 instead of $50. This is one of the best prices I've seen for those clothes. Luckily, I had been given a $50 GC for Sports Authority so I could get a pair of running tights. Armed with my GF and coupons, I went to the store and was able to buy a pair of running tights and a long sleeved cold gear running shirt for $50. Seriously, it was $50 after tax thanks to the sale and the coupons. While I don't like that the tights are a purple color (the only small they had!!!) I'm sure I'll get over it when I'm running. I'm not going out to make a fashion statement anyway. haha!
So what am I trying to say? No, I'm not trying to brag about the awesome deals I got. I'm just showing you that there are great deals out there. If you have some extra cash, it's worth seeing what's out there. Make sure to look for coupons before you head out!
**** Last year I didn't include the savings for these types of purchases in my advertised savings total that I wrote about in my coupon post. Mostly the advertised savings I totaled last year was just from grocery stores and stores like Target. Knowing that I rarely pay full price for clothes and shoes, I'm going to keep track of what I save & spend this year on those items. I'm interested to see what the totals end up being. Although, I'll have to hide the total spent from Husband though. lol!****
Showing posts with label coupons and frugality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coupons and frugality. Show all posts
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Coupon Savings and Monthly Spending - a year in review
Overview
This year I had decided to keep track of not only how much I was saving by using coupons & rebates but to also keep track of how much I saved by buying items on sale (when known). I also decided to give myself a budget and to track the spending to see if I could stay within that budget. Now, the budget was only for items spent towards food (including dog food) and health/beauty items (such as over the counter medications, lotion, body wash, etc). Husband and I charge everything (and yes we pay off the credit card every month) so the budget is more of a virtual budget than actual cash. If I went over, no big deal, but the game was in trying to stay below that number.
My monthly budget this year was $330. I came up with that number by looking at my spending for part of 2009. In June 2009 I decided to start keeping track of how much was being spent on food and health/beauty supplies and was surprised that 4 of the months I went over $400. That seemed really high for a family of 2. I thought $330/month would be a challenge yet within my grasp.
A couple things, before I show you the numbers. I track coupon savings for everything, not just those items I include in my budget. I also know that I didn't mark all the coupon savings because I forgot, usually this would pertain to restaurants and online shopping. These numbers do not include gift cards either. The advertised sale number is only from items found at grocery stores and stores such as Target, Walgreens, etc. So basically, mostly just on food and health/beauty items.
Savings
I saved $2,017.25 by using coupons and rebates. Seriously! That's a lot of $$$$ just for clipping coupons and sending in rebate submissions. Now, that is down $256.92 from last year, however, since I also changed my eating habits that meant I was using less coupons at the grocery store, so I'm ok with that.
The coupon usage isn't just limited to what I can get out of the Sunday paper. I also printed some coupons from the internet. I also used coupons at book stores, restaurants, craft stores, and clothes stores. Basically, if I'm going shopping, I'll look for a coupon before I leave the house. As you can see, the time it takes me to clip/search for coupons pays off.
I saved an additional $2,881.56 by buying things on sale. I didn't happen upon the sales either, at least not most of them, I'm one of those who looks at the ads every weekend to see what is on sale and what I have a coupon for. If I can get an item on sale and I have a coupon, that's when I buy it.
Between coupons and advertised savings, I saved a total of $4,898.81. That comes out to over $400 a month. I couldn't imagine spending an extra $400 a month on stuff! Now, I realize that on a lot of items I stockpile, so chances are I wouldn't have paid an extra $400 each month, but over time I would have spent that much.
Also, I mentioned we use a credit card for all our purchases. We do this because we get points that we then redeem for cash. In August of this year we redeemed enough points to receive a $500 check. I didn't include that with the coupon/rebate savings since I didn't think it counted towards either one.
Spending
As far as sticking to a budget, I did a lot better than expected. Remember, my goal was to spend no more than $330/month. My average spending was $286.52. I do believe I impressed myself. haha! I didn't go over $330 at all, although I came close two months ($329.57 and $323.95). What is impressive is that I had 7 months where I spent below $300.
The two months that I spent the most were during the summer and I imagine that was due to having family over for pool parties and that meant we spent more on groceries. We also had both sides over for Christmas, yet in December I spent below $300. I think that's because both sides helped out with the food.
I was thinking about how it is I was able to cut my spending down so much. Part of this was paying even more attention to sales and buying items when I could match coupons, sales, and rebates. Oh yes, there are several items I bought where I actually made money because I could match up all three. Part of this was also do to the fact that I was able to take advantage of some sales and stockpile items and therefore didn't have to buy them for the last several months (such as body wash, shampoo, contact solution, etc).
I think the most important factor, however, was being aware of what I was spending. Now that I was paying attention to what I was spending, I was a lot less likely to buy something that I wanted, but didn't need.
Next Year
I will continue to track spending and savings for 2011. It's going to be interesting to see how 2011 goes. Now that I eat more organic items, my grocery spending is going up. Now that I'm more aware of harmful chemicals in every day items, my health/beauty spending is more expensive. However, in some areas this is causing me to spend less. I don't buy as much junk food or processed foods like I used to, not even close. I think this kinda cancels out the increase of spending on groceries. I also don't use as much paper towels, cotton balls, etc as I used to, which means I spend less on those items. Keeping all this in mind, I had a tough time coming up with a new budget for 2011. However, knowing that I spent less than $300 most months in 2010, I finally decided that my budget would be $300/month. This will include groceries and dog food, and all health/beauty supplies. I believe I bought some stuff online or at specialty stores that I forgot to include in the spending budget last year (because it never dawned on me that I should), so this year I'm going to include that as well. I'm also going to include all make-up and fingernail purchased, not just those at your normal stores but also the specialty stores (where I buy most of mine). So, not only am I lowering my budget, I'm also adding things to it.
Wish me luck!
This year I had decided to keep track of not only how much I was saving by using coupons & rebates but to also keep track of how much I saved by buying items on sale (when known). I also decided to give myself a budget and to track the spending to see if I could stay within that budget. Now, the budget was only for items spent towards food (including dog food) and health/beauty items (such as over the counter medications, lotion, body wash, etc). Husband and I charge everything (and yes we pay off the credit card every month) so the budget is more of a virtual budget than actual cash. If I went over, no big deal, but the game was in trying to stay below that number.
My monthly budget this year was $330. I came up with that number by looking at my spending for part of 2009. In June 2009 I decided to start keeping track of how much was being spent on food and health/beauty supplies and was surprised that 4 of the months I went over $400. That seemed really high for a family of 2. I thought $330/month would be a challenge yet within my grasp.
A couple things, before I show you the numbers. I track coupon savings for everything, not just those items I include in my budget. I also know that I didn't mark all the coupon savings because I forgot, usually this would pertain to restaurants and online shopping. These numbers do not include gift cards either. The advertised sale number is only from items found at grocery stores and stores such as Target, Walgreens, etc. So basically, mostly just on food and health/beauty items.
Savings
I saved $2,017.25 by using coupons and rebates. Seriously! That's a lot of $$$$ just for clipping coupons and sending in rebate submissions. Now, that is down $256.92 from last year, however, since I also changed my eating habits that meant I was using less coupons at the grocery store, so I'm ok with that.
The coupon usage isn't just limited to what I can get out of the Sunday paper. I also printed some coupons from the internet. I also used coupons at book stores, restaurants, craft stores, and clothes stores. Basically, if I'm going shopping, I'll look for a coupon before I leave the house. As you can see, the time it takes me to clip/search for coupons pays off.
I saved an additional $2,881.56 by buying things on sale. I didn't happen upon the sales either, at least not most of them, I'm one of those who looks at the ads every weekend to see what is on sale and what I have a coupon for. If I can get an item on sale and I have a coupon, that's when I buy it.
Between coupons and advertised savings, I saved a total of $4,898.81. That comes out to over $400 a month. I couldn't imagine spending an extra $400 a month on stuff! Now, I realize that on a lot of items I stockpile, so chances are I wouldn't have paid an extra $400 each month, but over time I would have spent that much.
Also, I mentioned we use a credit card for all our purchases. We do this because we get points that we then redeem for cash. In August of this year we redeemed enough points to receive a $500 check. I didn't include that with the coupon/rebate savings since I didn't think it counted towards either one.
Spending
As far as sticking to a budget, I did a lot better than expected. Remember, my goal was to spend no more than $330/month. My average spending was $286.52. I do believe I impressed myself. haha! I didn't go over $330 at all, although I came close two months ($329.57 and $323.95). What is impressive is that I had 7 months where I spent below $300.
The two months that I spent the most were during the summer and I imagine that was due to having family over for pool parties and that meant we spent more on groceries. We also had both sides over for Christmas, yet in December I spent below $300. I think that's because both sides helped out with the food.
I was thinking about how it is I was able to cut my spending down so much. Part of this was paying even more attention to sales and buying items when I could match coupons, sales, and rebates. Oh yes, there are several items I bought where I actually made money because I could match up all three. Part of this was also do to the fact that I was able to take advantage of some sales and stockpile items and therefore didn't have to buy them for the last several months (such as body wash, shampoo, contact solution, etc).
I think the most important factor, however, was being aware of what I was spending. Now that I was paying attention to what I was spending, I was a lot less likely to buy something that I wanted, but didn't need.
Next Year
I will continue to track spending and savings for 2011. It's going to be interesting to see how 2011 goes. Now that I eat more organic items, my grocery spending is going up. Now that I'm more aware of harmful chemicals in every day items, my health/beauty spending is more expensive. However, in some areas this is causing me to spend less. I don't buy as much junk food or processed foods like I used to, not even close. I think this kinda cancels out the increase of spending on groceries. I also don't use as much paper towels, cotton balls, etc as I used to, which means I spend less on those items. Keeping all this in mind, I had a tough time coming up with a new budget for 2011. However, knowing that I spent less than $300 most months in 2010, I finally decided that my budget would be $300/month. This will include groceries and dog food, and all health/beauty supplies. I believe I bought some stuff online or at specialty stores that I forgot to include in the spending budget last year (because it never dawned on me that I should), so this year I'm going to include that as well. I'm also going to include all make-up and fingernail purchased, not just those at your normal stores but also the specialty stores (where I buy most of mine). So, not only am I lowering my budget, I'm also adding things to it.
Wish me luck!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Coupons and Frugality
As some of you might know, I'm a huge supporter of coupons and just getting a good deal period. I'm the person you see who has a coupon binder out in the store. I'm the one you stand behind at checkout that hands the cashier a handful of coupons for their purchase. You might think it's not worth it or a pain in the butt to be that organized, but it can really ad up.
About 1.5 years ago I got fed up with being made fun of for using coupons. I won't lie, the people who did it the most were my husband his parents. I kept telling them that I saved a lot of money but I don't think they believed me. I was getting rather annoyed by this because Husband the FIL believe in saving and not spending money, yet, they made fun of me for shopping for deals and using coupons..which saves money. It just didn't make sense to me. I decided to show them up and last year I kept track of how much was saved via coupons.
Are you ready? I ended up saving $2,274.17! That amazed me! I let them know how much I saved and while the teasing has gone down some, it hasn't gone down completely. Again..I just don't get it.
This year I've only saved $1,438.75 so far. I don't think I'll end up doing as well as last year but I'm ok with that. Why? I've changed my eating habits. I eat healthier now, I try to eat more from scratch, and I don't buy as much processed foods. In doing this, I have found that the coupons for food items I'll now buy are far and few between (except for cereal and granola bars that is).
One of the things I also started doing towards the end of last year was to keep track of how much I spent on groceries and healthy/beauty and household items (cleaners, detergent, etc). I've done that for all of this year so far. While I am not using as many coupons, my monthly spending has gone down a lot since last year. Eating healthier really does have it's benefits!
Since I do keep track of this info, one of the things I'll share at the end of each month is how I did with savings and how I did trying to keep on track with my budget for the month (which is $330 or less on the categories listed above).
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